Sealink Funding Ltd. sued Citigroup for damages connected to a $513 million investment in residential mortgage-backed securities, Bloomberg Businessweek reported Nov. 7.
In the suit filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Sealink accused Citigroup of misrepresenting and omitting details on underwriting standards used to issue loans pooled to create the securities. Sealink is pursuing damages in excess of the principal amount of the securities.
Citigroup, which noted that it was cooperating with regulators in response to subpoenas and requests for information, declined to otherwise comment to Bloomberg Businessweek.
The Citibank suit is the latest in a series of Sealink suits tied to mortgage bonds. The firm has sued Bank of America, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase and UBS AG.
Bank of America noted in a regulatory filing that in September it settled suits with Sealink and two additional foreign mortgage-bond investors, Dexia SA and Bayerische Landesbank, Germany’s second-largest state-owned lender. Terms of the deals were not disclosed, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
Sealink was established to manage Landesbank Sachsen AG’s riskiest assets after the German lender nearly failed. SachsenLB received nearly $22.1 billion in bailout funding in 2007, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The German state of Saxony later sold the bank to Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, and as part of that sale, the state guaranteed billions in potential losses from investments backed by such assets as the U.S. subprime mortgages placed with Sealink, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
The case is Sealink Funding Ltd. v. Citigroup Inc., 653844/2012, New York State Supreme Court, New York County (Manhattan).